Indy Power Rankings for the Week of June 29th, 2015

#1 Matt Tremont (@TremontCZW)-“The Bulldozer” returns to the #1 spot AGAIN in 2015! THE top death match wrestler in the United States right now claims his second #1 ranking this year (3rd overall) and his second death match title (5th overall) after going back-to-back at IWA Mid-South’s King of the Death Matches. With HUGE wins over Tank, JD Horror, MASADA, & John Wayne Murdoch, he was the clear cut #1 this week. Tremont is making HISTORY this year. This is a guy that is more than just a death match guy, but he’s etching his names in the history books as one of the greatest death match wrestlers of all time. Period.

#2 Athena (@wg06athena)-The ACW American Joshi Champion defeated Claudia Del Solis in Round 1 of their Queen of Queens tournament to retain the title on 6/28, then beat Su Yung to retain the title in Round 2, and then beat Angel Blue in the finals to again retain the title. With the tournament victory and 3 successful title defenses, Athena returns to the Top 10 after a bit of an absence. Women’s wrestling has come a long way the last 2 years and Athena is a big part of that in the U.S.

#3 Ludark Shaitan (@LuDarKShAiTAN)-Last year’s Queen of the Death Matches runner-up completes the task this year as she claims the 2015 IWA Mid-South Queen of the Death Match crown. The NGX Women’s Champion flew up to Charlestown, IN where she defeated Mistress Burgandi in Round 1, then beat Randi West in Round 2, and then finished up the day by beating Kathy “The Butcher” Owens in the Finals. This is Ludark’s HIGHEST ranking and her first ranking in 2015 at all. Congratulations to this insane talent on the huge win!

#4 John Wayne Murdoch (@johnmurdoch25)-“The Duke of Hardcore” couldn’t quite pull off his second Death Match tournament win this year as he came up short in the finals against Matt Tremont on 6/27, but he earned another ranking in the Top 10. With wins vs. Corporal Robinson, Devon Moore, and Nick Gage (in an instant classic) JWM impressed the crowd, even in defeat. His match vs. Nick Gage is already being billed as a match of the year contender AND one of the best matches in death match tournament history. Don’t believe it? Buy the DVD to find out for yourself.

#5 Roderick Strong (@RoderickStrong)-The PWG World Champion earns yet another ranking in 2015 as he defeated Speedball Mike Bailey on 6/26 to retain the title. 2015 has been an AMAZING year for the former ROH World Champion as he has once again taken the indies by storm. Whether he’s main eventing EVOLVE, PWG, or FIP, Strong has been bringing his “A Game” in 2015. He truly is one of the best in the world and continues to prove that week after week.

#6 Josh Andrews-A 3-0 weekend and a victory in the HCW Light Heavyweight title tournament gets Josh Andrews his first ranking this week. Once again we get a first-timer after he defeated The Rebel on 6/27, then beat Jonny Rose to win the tournament. He followed that up with a third win when he beat The Evil Clown and Mr. Cobblepot in a non-tournament match. As always, it’s good to see some new talent and new names in the Top 10 this week.

#7 Jun Kasai-Last year after CZW’s Tournament of Death, the “Crazy Monkey” enjoyed his first and only #1 ranking. This year hasn’t been quite as productive for one of the best death match wrestlers on Earth, BUT, he earned a Top 10 ranking this week. He teamed with Masashi Takeda and Kenji Fukimoto at Freedoms on 6/25 to defeat Mammoth Sasaki, Kamui and Mr. Gannosuke, then defeated Isami Kodaka by referee stoppage at Makai Alchemy on 6/26, and then teamed with Masashi Takeda and Kenji Fukimoto at Freedoms on 6/27 to defeat Takashi Sasaki, Daisuke Masaoka and Hi69 to go 3-0 for the week. We hope to see more of Kasai in 2015!

#8 Danny Chase-The HOP Full Throttle Champion defeated Timba Wolf on 6/26 to retain the title, then beat Gabriel Kidd on 6/28 to again retain the title, and then wrapped up the weekend when he teamed with Alex Gracie & Bam Bam Barton the same night to defeat Barricade, Stevie Mitchell & Tommy Taylor to go 3-0 for the week. His big weekend got him his first ranking this week proving yet again that talent from all over the world have been doing big things this year, even if the mainstream wrestling media haven’t shed a light on them yet.

#9 Zack Sabre Jr. (@zacksabrejr)-One of the best technical wrestlers in the world re-joins the Top 10 yet again after another very good week. He was #9 last week and held steady again this week as he defeated Chris Hero at PWG on 6/26. With 9 straight victories, this UK superstar is really on a hot streak right now. We’ve said it before but the one thing he may be missing right now to cement his 2015 as highly successful is some gold around his waist. One would assume that’s going to happen sooner rather than later.

#10 Anderson Tyson Moore-A big tour of CWE in Canada produces the very first ranking for Anderson Tyson Moore as he defeated Chase Owens on 6/22 at CWE, then defeated Buddy Collins on 6/23, then defeated Kevin Cannon on 6/25, and then defeated Danny Duggan, Bobby Jay and Mike Mission on 6/26 to win the vacant CWE Championship to go 4-0 for the week. In all honesty, he really should have been higher but the CWE results came after many of the official voters had already cast their ballots.

Honorable Mention. Yukio Sakaguchi-Defeated Kazusada Higuchi at DDT in the semifinals on 6/28 and then defeated Konosuke Takeshita in the finals to win the King of DDT tournament and go 2-0 for the week.

People’s Champ. Antonio Atama (@AntonioAtama)-With XWA’s full support behind him, Atama earns his first win in the online voting competition as he dominated the rest of the contenders after his victory vs. Steve Corino at XWA on 6/27. We expect and hope to see more of him as the year rolls on!

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